Our House...Was a Very, Very, Very Fine House

Ryan and I are in withdrawal. For eight years we planned, painted, decorated, and remodeled our two homes we owned. We have been renting now for 5 years and although you can do the aforementioned as renters, it really is silly to put any money into a rent house. Ryan came home yesterday after running to Home Depot, gushing about this beautiful tile he saw. I, have been gushing about a beautiful couch I saw. Oh, how we are itching! We love watching DIY Network together, laughing at other's mistakes and oooing and ahhing over successful renovations. We have lots of ideas...

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We lived in our first home for 6 years. It was simple and old, but it was ours. The house needed LOTS of work, but it was home. It was a FREE home. My father had purchased it many, many, many years ago to rent out (and the property as well since it backed up to our existing property). When my Grandmother moved back to GR, she lived there. Then, my sister and her family lived there. When my father passed away, my family home was too big for just my mom. A few years later, the decision was made for her to build a smaller home and for my sister and her family to then move into the big house. Ryan and I moved into the small "rent" house and it was ours, deed and all (the house was part of my inheritance). It was just what we needed. We were both very newly married, in college, and poor. We had a two bedroom, two bath house all to ourselves. Most importantly, we didn't have to pay one penny of rent or mortgage (yup, nada!). We worked hard painting the paneling, replacing the carpet, decorating, and fixing the plumbing among other things. It was our first foray into home improvement. Six years later, we had done a lot and we were so proud of our little house. Alas, Ryan got a coaching job in another town. We were fortunate enough to build our home from the ground up there (and oh what fun that was!). But that's another story...

I miss my little GR house. We get to see it every time we drive to my mom's. We have a lot of great memories there: We see the tree that we planted, the porch we built, the stump of the tree we had to cut down. We brought Cate home from the hospital to that house and she spent the first 2 years of her life there. My first puppy ever lived in this house too. She loved going in and out of the doggy door! We learned about hospitality and hosted many gatherings in our living room. I learned NOT to mix ammonia and bleach when cleaning (I was and still am kind of a clean freak, but I have chilled out a lot since then). I truly learned to appreciate so many of the things I took for granted growing up (central air/heat, space, storage, designer furnishings, housekeeper, a stationary dishwasher, disposal, slab foundation, etc, etc). When we sold it, we found out it had termites, a bad foundation, and rusted gas pipes that could have exploded at any moment (God is good); However, it was a good little house to us and I feel very blessed that we spent six years of our lives there. We learned a lot about ourselves and each other. I really appreciate all that I have now. Sometimes I struggle with contentment, but I just think back to that little house on First Street and how we were so happy there...when we had nothing...but we had EVERYTHING :)

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Here are some scanned Before/After pics of our first home (sorry for the poor quality-these were taken before the "digital age".

Living Room Before

Living Room AFTER

We had lots of hand me down items, but, we were so greatful to have anything at all!

Cate lived in this house the first two years of her life

Living Room (Back end) BEFORE (we had just moved-in in this pic)

Living Room (back end) AFTER

Kitchen BEFORE (with my sweet, Daisy, pictured-she was a puppy here). Daisy tore up the linoleum so we had to get new floors-but I was happy b/c I hated this design.

Kitchen AFTER. I love the color red. Can you tell? That black thing by my fridge was my dishwasher. We had to roll it to the sink and hook it up to the faucet to run it. At least I had one!

Cate's Room BEFORE (was a guest room before the nursery)

Cate's Room AFTER

Guest Bathroom/Laundry Room BEFORE

Guest Room/Laundry Room AFTER This was my favorite remodeling project. I painted the walls lime green and the wainscoting white. Ryan replaced the counter with ceramic tile and he also replaced the sink and faucet. I topped it all off with some new accessories w/lavender accents.

This is my favorite picture. My two babies on our front porch. It is still on my fridge to this day.